2Reject racism. Our laws have resulted in a system of modern day slavery, where black men serve nearly as much time in for non-violent drug offenses as whites do for violent offenses. Urge your senators to cosponsor and press for passage of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S. 2123) as a first step toward changing this broken system.

3Don’t treat our communities like a war zone. With prodding from FCNL, President Obama released an executive order that places restrictions on a Pentagon program to provide weapons used in war zones to police forces in the United States. Urge your representative to support Rep. Hank Johnson’s legislation, the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act (H.R. 1232), that would turn this executive order into a law.

5War is not working. Much of the public debate in this election year has focused on how U.S. security can be guaranteed by dominating and controlling the rest of the world. But 15 years after Congress wrote the president a blank check to launch new wars, we can look back as a nation and see that war isn’t working. One step in the right direction would be for the Senate to pass the bipartisan Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act (S. 2251) that would refocus U.S. foreign policy on preventing violent conflicts five years from now rather than fighting wars five days from now. Urge your senator to cosponsor S. 2251.